Developing a Basic Web Page with HTML

Tutorial Objectives Explore the structure of the World Wide Web Learn the basic principles of Web documents Create a HTML document View an HTML file using a Web browser Use HTML tags for text, headings, paragraphs, and lists Insert character tags into an HTML document Insert an inline graphic image into a HTML document Add special characters to an HTML document Insert horizontal lines into an HTML document

Introducing the World Wide Web In order for computers to share resources efficiently, they can be linked together in one of the following structured networks: linked within a local area network (LAN) linked across a wide area network (WAN) Networks are very useful, their use led to a “network of networks” called the Internet.

The Internet The Internet consists of millions of interconnected computers that enable users to communicate and share information. Many Internet tools required users to master an array of terms, acronyms, and commands before they could navigate the Internet. The World Wide Web was developed to make the Internet easier to use and give quick access to users.

Structure of the Internet This figure shows the physical structure of the Internet, which uses fiber-optic cables, satellites, phone lines, and other telecommunications media to send data back and forth.

The Development of the World Wide Web In 1989, Timothy Berners-Lee and other researchers at the CERN nuclear research facility, laid the foundation of the World Wide Web, or the Web. created an information system that would make it easy for researchers to locate and share data required minimal training and support developed a system of hypertext documents, electronic files that contain elements that you can easily select

Hypertext Documents Hypertext offers a better way of locating information. When you read a book, you follow a linear progression, reading one page after another. With hypertext, you progress through pages in whatever way is best suited to you and your objectives. Hypertext lets you skip from one topic to another.

Hypertext Documents The key to hypertext is the use of links, which you activate to move from one topic to another. a link can open a document on a computer anywhere in the world Hypertext has become the dominate method of sharing and retrieving information on the Internet, becoming known as the World Wide Web, or the Web. Documents on the Web are known as Web pages.

Web Pages and Web Browsers A Web page is stored on a Web server, which makes the page available to users of the Web. To view a Web page, the user runs a Web browser, a software program that retrieves the page and displays it. A Web browser can either be text-based, or graphical. The most common Web browsers available today are: Microsoft Internet Explorer Netscape Navigator

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) Web pages are text files, written in a language called Hypertext Markup Language or HTML. A markup language is a language used to describe the contact and format of documents. HTML was developed from the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a language used for large-scale documents. SGML proved to be cumbersome and difficult, thus HTML was created.

HTML HTML allows Web authors to create documents that can be displayed across different operating systems. HTML code is easy to use, that even nonprogrammers can learn to use it. HTML describes the format of Web pages through the use of tags. it’s the job of the Web browser to interpret these tags and render the text accordingly

Versions of HTML This figure presents a history of the various versions of HTML that have been released by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

HTML HTML has a set of rules, called syntax. syntax are a set of standards or specifications developed by a consortium of Web developers, programmers, and authors called the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) HTML extensions have been added to support new features, which have been adopted in subsequent sets of standards released by the W3C. these extensions have provided Web page authors with more options

Web Development Web designers need to determine which browsers and browser versions support their web pages. In the future, Web development is focusing more on XML (Extensible Markup Language) and XHTML (Extensible HyperText Markup Language) for developing document content. XML combined with style sheets provides the same functionality as HTML, but with greater flexibility XHTML was designed to overcome some of the problems with competing HTML standards

Tools for Creating HTML Documents HTML documents are text files, which a text editor such as Windows NotePad can be used to create. You can also use an HTML converter or an HTML editor. an HTML converter like Microsoft Word takes text in one format and converts it to HTML code an HTML editor helps you create an HTML file by inserting HTML codes for you as you work

HTML Syntax Document content is what the users sees on the page, such as headings and images. Tags are the HTML codes that control the appearance of the document content. tag is the name of the HTML tag attributes are properties of the tag document content is actual content that appears in the Web page

HTML Tags Tags can be one-sided or two-sided. two-sided tags contain an opening tag <b> that tells the browser to turn on a feature and apply it to the contact that follows, and a closing tag </b> that turns off the feature one-sided tags are used to insert noncharacter data into the Web page, such as a graphic image or video clip <tag attribute> Tags are not case sensitive. The current standard is to display all tags in lowercase letters.

Creating Heading Tags HTML supports six levels of headings, numbered <h1> through <h6>, with <h1> being the largest and most prominent. Headings are always displayed in a bold font.

Six Heading Levels

Creating Lists HTML supports three kinds of lists: an ordered list, which is used to display information in a numeric order an unordered list, which list items are not listed in a particular order i.e. bullets a definition list, which is a list of terms, each followed by a definition line that is typically indented slightly to the right

Creating Character Tags HTML also lets you format individual characters. A tag that you apply to an individual character is called a character tag. There are two types of character tags: logical character tag physical character tag

Common Logical Character Tags

Common Physical Character Tags

Special Characters Occasionally you will want to include entities or special characters in your Web page that do not appear on your keyboard. For example: registered trademark symbol ® copyright symbol © HTML supports the use of character symbols that are identified by a code number or name.

Special Characters and Codes

Inserting Horizontal Lines A horizontal line can improve the appearance of a Web page. The syntax for creating a horizontal line is: <hr align=“align” size=“size” width=“width” color=“color” noshade> The HTML horizontal syntax includes the following: align specifies the horizontal alignment of the line on the page (center, left, or right) size specifies the height of the line in pixels or percentage of the screen width width indicates the width of the line in pixels or percentage of the screen width color indicates the color of the line noshade specifies that the browser display a solid line